There’s a cool article on the TimeBack Management website on the reasons why we need a way to be contacted in a time of true crisis.  Most of us have trained ourselves to not answer every call, or process every email message upon arrival — to do otherwise is to turn oneself into a slave to incoming calls/messages — but we still need a way to be reached that cuts through whatever we are doing in the moment so that we can pick up the “Batphone.”

The article makes a larger point, which is that companies desperately need policies around communication an responsiveness that fit in with the smartphone age.

Here’s the article:  “What’s your BatPhone?”

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Tweet This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

She decries the fact that electronic calendars do little more than mimic paper calendars, and offer little functionality in important areas.  She states: “the porting of the paper-based calendar to its electronic cousin, in our view, suffers from a lack of vision.  The electronic version is a replica of the paper version with… fast search capabilities.”

“Builders of electronic calendars could have examined how users think about and construct their schedules.  … they would have run into thinking about how to build tools that allow users to capture the more esoteric and complex temporal structures affecting their time coordination.”

She writes that the current tools offer no support for automatically changing scheduled activities.  For example, in planning software like Microsoft Project, a change in the final due date can automatically cause all the dependent tasks to shift their due dates in concert.  In Microsoft Outlook, no such capability exists.

Also, there is now way to download a project’s individual commitments into one’s calendar.  Instead of manually entering the tasks required to complete one’s taxes, an entire sequence of events could be downloaded that reliably produce the end-result, if followed.  It would allow us to see more clearly what happens when we commit to play a role on a new project, for example, and more realistically deal with the time it will consume.

She gives the example of airlines that allow passengers to download entire flights directly into their calendars.  A smart calendar would incorporate the time it take to get to the airport from the office, and block that time out also!

She also talks about the need for working groups to make their norms that require calendar space more explicit, such as the fact that that the group has a mandatory lunch discussion each Friday and a meeting with the Vice President every last Wednesday of the month.  New members could immediately download these structured commitment upon joining, and observe the impact on their overall schedules.

One of the major complaints from the most effective time managers is the fact that they have to do so much manual work to set up effective schedules that cover the temporal structures mentioned above.  An intelligent scheduler would know to never set time aside for a trip to the grocery store at a time when it’s closed, for example, on a holiday.

Lastly, it should be easier to coordinate schedules.  A project manager should be able to “see” a view of a person’s calendar to determine whether key action items need to be changed in keeping with events happening in other calendars.

Wu mentions a particular intensity around these complaints, and I take that to mean that the opportunity for a significant product innovation exists.  Companies that make electronic scheduling tools could be producing much, much better products, a point that I make here at 2Time Labs.

She obviously has some insight into what an effective user-design might look like, and if game-changing software were to emerge, it would probably sweep into the lives of working professionals at an awesome pace.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Tweet This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

On a consulting call with a client earlier today, she bemoaned the fact that managers were allowing strategic plans to fall through the cracks.  I described that fact that old habits executed daily aren’t enough to implement some new plans — they require new habits.  Unfortunately, they are often hard to learn.

Maybe this software could help:  Goals on Track.

N.B. Sorry about the incorrect link posted earlier.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Tweet This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

The product is a sensor that looks like a wristband, and can be used to track all sorts of movements that a user might conduct in the normal course of a day.  There might be no need to track your time usage manually each day, if it works as described, and you might be able to do the kind of real experiments that are needed to see whether or not a change in a single habit really helps, or just feels good.

The product is called “Up” and the company that makes it has a very cool name:  Jawbone.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Tweet This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

It would require a skill that I define as an Orange Belt skill in scheduling:  changing or re-scheduling the segments in your calendar over and over again.

Well, here’s a calendar tool for the iPad that makes it a much easier task than I have ever seen.  It’s not a projector that sits in a wrist-watch, but moving around the segments in a schedule in this manner seems to be just as easy as I had imagined.

Here is the link to Muji Apps Calendar.  (Thanks to the alert reader who noticed that this was missing…!)

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Tweet This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

Most of us think of schedules in linear terms, the way we think of calendars and diaries.  Along comes the Muji Chronotebook to change all that, with the first circular daily schedule I have ever seen.

It’s based on the face of a clock, and the 12 hours that it represents.  Each activity looks like a slice of a pie, and it seems deceptively easy to plan a full day using a layout that looks like the analog clocks that most of us older folk grew up with.

It’s whimsical, traditional and nostalgic, and the fact that there is no software or app that uses this concept, means that it’s all about pen/pencil and paper.

Read all about one person’s experience here: The Daily Rind, a Better Way to Plan the Day.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Tweet This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

As I noted in a prior post: “Productive Notifications on Your Blackberry,” it’s amazing to me that Blackberry (BB’s)s are shipped with so many notifications turned on.  I noticed a rumor somewhere that RIM is now shipping them with the notifications turned “off.”  This is progress!

The biggest change I have noticed in my own productivity is the way that I manage the flow of emailed time demands.

Before:  I used to manage all incoming email from my Outlook Inbox.

After:  I now manage all messages from the BB Inbox, which is continuously synched with with my Outlook Inbox.  I use the BB to do a form of triage in which I delete stuff I don’t want immediately (i.e. Tossing) and allow some items to flow into my Outlook Inbox for immediate processing when I return to my desktop environment.

By the time the message gets to Outlook, I have already decided what to do with it — dealing with it there is a matter of convenience as the small screen of the BB makes it hard to do things like read downloads, process pics, etc.

I was able to find a powerful BB app called “AddThis” that allows you to immediately convert an email message into an item in a calendar.  Using Google Calendar to synch my calendars in Outlook and BB has meant that I can change my calendar on the road and have it also change on my desktop.

Sweet!  (Even though it’d not quite working perfectly yet.)

These changes represent major shifts in my time management process, and I have tried to be careful in making them because the benefits are now more obvious.

Being able to check email without having to fire up my laptop, and assure an Internet connection has been a tremendous benefit.  Lately, my DSL line has been spotty (ever since a painter came in to do some decorating work.)  Having consistent access to email has been useful, and being able to fill the odd spot here and there when I’m on the road or far from an Internet connection has allowed me greater choices.

Have I been tempted to do indulge in the dangerous, rude, unhygienic and unproductive behaviors that I have written so much about?  Absolutely.

However, the benefit of knowing about them in advance has certainly helped in stopping myself from doing them.  I find that I have to be very awake and aware at those moments when I feel the “Blackberry Itch” and take a short breath to ask myself whether or not this is a good moment to check for new messages.

For example, in the last paragraph, I wondered if an interesting prospect who contacted me yesterday has replied to my pithy response.  I felt the Itch coming on… I could have stopped myself from writing in mid-sentence to check… breaking my flow state.

But, I noticed it and let it pass, as I have at other times when someone is talking to me, I’m in a meeting, I’m driving someplace or I’m in the shower!  (BTW, there’s a special water-proof bag they are selling for those who can’t wait…)

All in all I can make the following judgment: as a “time demand management device” my BB upgrade has been a successful one, and I’m yet to play my first game. This might be due to the fact that I have used up all the memory on other essential apps, so there might not be any games on my BB until I effect an upgrade.  There is something to be said for keeping it lean and mean!

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Tweet This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

It makes a great case for processing email in batches, rather than continuously, which is a better way to achieve the Zero Inbox.

I’m a lucky one, I think, in this respect. By writing about the process I was following to select a smartphone, I became determined to follow the habits he describes before I got my Blackberry.  I have been able to maintain a certain discipline about checking email, and rarely find myself doing so when I don’t have time to process all my messages.

My plan is simple:  if I find myself checking email at inappropriate times, I plan to do exactly what the author of the article auggest in order to prevent a bad habit from ever taking root.

One thing I have noticed is how many messages I delete right off the bat, which makes me realize that I need to unsubscribe from a bunch of newsletters and notifications that I don’t really read.

It’s a useful article — hard to believe it’s three years old given it’s relevance today.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Tweet This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

There is one thing that stands out to me, however, and that is that you seem to link using paper with using memory. I write everything down so that I don’t have to use my memory. Listing can be done electronically too and if one just sticks to listing, it leads to using memory regardless of the tool you use. You also say, “there is a limit to the number of time demands that can be handled using only paper.” I don’t understand. A 24 hour day is the same whether you use paper or a BlackBerry. Do you mean it is difficult for schedules that are constantly changing (dynamic)? Although, I’ve never had a problem there either. Simply scratch, rewrite, and keep going.

Thanks for your patience with my comments and questions. All-in-all, I really like your approach to time management

At first, I couldn’t see how I linked the use of paper with the use of memory as she is absolutely doing the right thing by Capturing (by writing) in order to avoid using memory.  When she elaborates by quoting me in saying that “there is a limit to the number of time demands that can be handled using only paper” I began to understand.

Paper is a limiting factor in the following fundamentals:  Storing, Scheduling and Listing simply because paper is difficult to back up in case of a disaster, and doesn’t allow for efficient searching when an item needs to be found.  Above a certain number, keeping time demands on paper only invites problems.

The truth is, paper also doesn’t scale well,  It might work well for simple, low volumes, but it fails when storage needs become complex, schedules become dynamic or heavy, or lists become too long.  Anyone who still tries to store passwords on paper, for example, probably has a challenge that also extends to one of security.  By the same token, anyone who needs to schedule activities in 2012 probably has the problem of lugging around multiple paper calendars.

I once had a personal, paper diary that I left on an airplane.  It had some important notes in it and I regretted the loss of this unique information.  My wife seems to have particularly bad luck with her computers.  Three of them have crashed four times in the past couple of years.

It’s been a hassle, but restoring the content from backups (we use Mozy.com) has been an easy affair once the computer was back up and running.

I hope this helps — if anyone would like to add to the discussion, please do so in the comments below.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Tweet This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

They place most activities directly into an available time-slot, immediately assigning it a date, duration and start-time. In so doing, they are able to forget about the time demand until the appropriate “appointment” comes up.

These users do use their calendars flexibly, moving items depending on what happens each day. They make these changes on the fly, using electronic tools like Outlook in a way that goes well beyond the intent of its designers. As a result, they have developed some special needs.

One feature that would make things easier would be a way to schedule “hard” vs “soft” segments in the calendar.

Essentially, Outlook tries to treat each item in its calendar as an appointment: a timed meeting that involves another person such as a dinner date or a meeting with a customer. However, Orange and Green belts also schedule individual activities, dubbed by some as “appointments with yourself.” The vast majority of these items involve no other people.

However, these two commitments are not exactly alike.

Their lives would be made much easier if Outlook were to distinguish between different kinds of segments, recognizing them as either “hard” or “soft.”

A hard item is one that has external consequences if the start and/or end-times change. Many involve activities with other people who rely on our presence, and have some expectation regarding the other person’s attendance. These segments cannot be changed unilaterally.

A soft item is one that only involves the user, and can easily be moved around one’s calendar, with few immediate consequences. They might have great importance, but a late start would not endanger the end result.

Given these differences, programs like Outlook could help users to “protect” hard segments by making it more difficult for them to be double-booked or deleted, and also by giving them stronger reminders with different pop-ups and audible sounds. Colour coding would also help to separate them from other segments in a user’s calendar.

This would help users to manage the two kind of segments differently, in keeping with their distinct functions.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Tweet This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post